Pixelh8 Gameboy Musictech Cart goes into production

For sale now!!

Turn your gameboy into a nifty synth.

Renowned chiptune artist Pixelh8 has finished putting together his long awaited gameboy cart. You've been able to download the ROM file for use with an emulator. But now, you can purchase the actual cart.

But be quick if you want one, as they are selling fast. They will be ready to be shipped by mid-october, but payments are being collected now. There is a reserve list, but insider info tells me there are a couple still available.

Click here for more info and how to order.

Pixelh8's festival day

Pixelh8 Gameboy Cartridge

including one very silly song :o)

Hooray for Pixelh8 being played on Radio 1 again last night (you can listen again to Huw Stephen's show if you're that way inclined on the Radio 1 website).



Oh and you can preorder a funky gameboy cart by dropping M a message viaPixelh8's myspace page

another installment from Pixelh8

(did I mention he was played on radio 1?! *grin*)

Knobs and Noises

Another Pixelh8 Video

Also...I don't know if I've mentioned it, but Pixelh8 album - Videogames Ruined My Life now available on iTunes and Napster....

another Pixelh8 vid...

Why M didn't come to the party with us

and was up at stupid o'clock on Sunday...

Happy Birthday To M

Who has just turned 30. :o)



He has just had a three day party (pics on flickr) so I took my kids to Dorset to their dads on Thursday, then drove straight to pub here for first night of madness. It was the noise night, and I had missed The Fez but got there just in time to see Faux Pride's set which was good, as I've missed him twice now on other occations. The other person I saw that night which I really liked was Zero Point Energy, who seemed to get a love him or hate him reaction with hs almost psychosis enducing noise, which I really really liked the feel of, but had lots of people covering their ears. Then post pub I stayed at Ms with a whole bunch of loons.

Then Friday I went into town and bought myself a present. But I've already posted a little about that. I love it way more than my new car. (Actually anyone here want an N reg BMW 320i I must get around to putting it in the paper or something).

Anyway, camera was purchased and then I met up with all the boys and we went for breakfast in a cafe yum. I had gone into jessops really early and they'd only just opened. The salesman was rubbish, I knew what I wanted but he didn't try to sell me any extras or bag or memory card or other lenses or anything. So we had breakfast, and then I went to my parents house to show off my new camera to my dad, and to figure out how to use it and charge it and all of that. And to pinch a flash card from him and order one myself from a rather excellent website - Memory Card Zoo. I ordered the card and a camera bag Friday afternoon and the card arrived Saturday morning!! I also had a bath there. Big luxury. I so wish I had a bath at home. Not so environmentally friendly I know, but I love having a bath. On second thoughts maybe I appreciate it more by not having one here. I dunno.

After that I went home and put clean clothes on then went to the pub where M's event was. As we know the landlord and lady, and it was their last weekend there I had offered to help with some of the packing. So I spent a good hour or so helping landlady to pack (landlord funnily enough had gone out drinking elsewhere). Friday night was Chiptune night! There was a bit of an arse about the venue as the landlord had decided we couldn't use the big semi-outside yard area that we had used on Thursday night. This meant that we had to use the little room upstairs. It got packed. So many people in such a little room, that people were sitting on top of people. It was amazing night. Henry Homesweet did really well, I think it was his first gig, and he didn't do a bad job at all. I of course really enjoyed Pixelh8's set. With people managing to get up and dance, even with very little space.

I didn't stay at Ms with the loons that night as I wanted some sleep at least. My dad came over early saturday morning to put up a couple of shelves for me (yes I could have done it myself but he has the advantage of being much taller than me and owning all the required tools!) so I managed to get myself out of bed by 8am so I could have an hour to do the huge mountain of dishes before he got here at 9. Then I went to my parents house to get the photos off the camera that I had taken the night before. And to see my Grandparents who were driving upto their house (which is fantastic because over the last year my grandad has been really really ill, and I really didn't think he'd come out the other side. But to manage to drive an hours drive is fantastic!!) I also hoovered out my old car, and the new one. Just have to try and get the mud off the interior of the old one now and get around to selling it. (Did I already ask if anyone wants a BMW?)

Saturday night (Breakcore/gabba/very noisy night) was back at the pub for another excellent night of music and mayhem, and me taking lots of pictures of it trying to figure out how to compensate for the flash of the strobe. Hours of snapping fun, as well as a bit of dancing. A couple of sets that stood out for me - Helix, Nesh and of course Hidden Fortress.

Funnily both landlord and landlady at different times said "If only this had been in the yard it would have been excellent" so I pointed out several times that yes it would have been excellent and they would have taken more money on the bar if it had been there (as the little room is upstairs and the bar is downstairs). Ah well, they were only doing what they thought was right at the time. I again refused to stay at Ms prefering to go home.

So Sunday M kicked everyone out to their respective parts of the country. I met up with him. We picked up the equipment from the pub. We took it back to his. We came back to mine where I finished off a crochet shawl I've been making (will try and get a photo or two of it later), we ate bacon sarnies, he played mario cart. Then we went to a lovely pub for dinner.

Now I'm just waiting for my camera bag to arrive and my children.

Pixelh8 new video

Guess I should link to this too :)

Pixelh8 new video

Three Night Electronica Event in Ipswich

more music stuff

Another interview with M....

Just linking it more for my own storage than anything :)

It's cool that Pixelh8 seems to be taking off and finally getting noticed.  The funny chiptune bleeps and blips I keep hearing from my music room are being spread out there.

Busy weekend! Imogen Heap with Hidden fortress in Cardiff

Had a pretty busy weekend!  M was supposed to be supporting Imogen Heap in Norwich on Thursday.  As it turned out the force was not to be with him, as a 43 mins by train journey actually turned into all afternoon and evening, with him eventually arriving in Norwich at about 8.45, a mere two and a quarter hours after his sound-check, and an hour after he was due on stage.  Nevertheless I think he had a great time hanging out there, and had the fantastic news that he could open in Cardiff instead.  He stayed with Imogen and the other artists and crew on the tour bus there, and I planned to meet him in Cardiff after I dropped off E & R at their dads.

So, while he was faffing about with trains, we were umming and ahhing over driving to Thetford for the weekly sports hall meetup.  In the end the wind looked too bad and we decided just to head to my mums for chinese for dinner instead :o)

Friday we left at lunch time, and did the drive down to Dorset, stopping at our usual Avon Country Park for a run around, and a hot chocolate and some chips.  Then I dropped the girls with their dad and drove like a maniac to try and reach Cardiff in time to see Ms set.  I already knew this was an impossability really, as Wimborne to Cardiff is a very slow road indeed.  Single windy carriageway for most of it until you get to the M4.  Then I had to battle with the ambiguous directions (as printed out from multimap) where it seemed every signpost for Cardiff was the one I needed according to which A road I was supposed to join.  (I guess the A road and the M4 run parallel for several junctions).  I stopped to ask directions at a garage, but it turned out the man there had not long moved there, and could only give me a general point in the right direction.  I then stopped at a bus stop to ask, and a lady there said she was going that way and she could direct me in exchange  for a lift, which I gladly took-up!  Having dropped her off, it then took me another 10 or so minutes to find somewhere to park, which was then a bit of a walk away from the venue.  (The Point).  I arrived, gave my name at the door, all was fine, went into the main hall just in time to see M pick up his laptop and walk off stage.  I did hear people talking about his set though, saying nice things.  So I assume he was upto his usual good standard.  I think he surprises people that they look at him onstage, and his music comes as a bit of a shock.  Particularly Hidden Fortress, even more so than Pixelh8.  I mean, to be fair, he does look a bit of a gaming geek, so the chiptune gamey stuff not quite so much of a surprise.  But the hard alternative electronic dance/pop sound from Hidden Fortress is always a bit of a surprise *grin*, although I imagine he played a bit of a chiptuney set, bearing in mind where he was.  I really should find out just what he played - I wonder if there was anyone out there that got any video footage of the gig.

So having seen him go offstage it was my mission to find out how on earth you get back there, eventually collaring a security guard that let me in the back, to be told by Imogen (I had no idea she was quite so tall!) that he'd just gone through another door to where the merchandise stand was.  So after brief hellos I went through that door (which led back to the front lobby) and back into the main hall.  Round and round in circles!  Eventually finding M fielding various questions from people asking him about his music, which is always a good sign.  Listened to NEMO, the band touring with Imogen, who do a set of their own, as well as providing a band for some of Imogen's music.  Now, to be completely honest, I'd never listened to any of Imogen Heap's music before.  I know she has quite a following, and that the Cardiff date sold out really fast, I'm not even sure of the best way to describe her music.  Its kind of Bjork like, kinda strange electronic noise, mixed with piano chords and haunting vocal melodies.  Not really my thing entirely, but I have to say, from a geeky music point of view that woman is queen of the sampler.  Sampling herself on the fly, building up harmonies and counter melodies over the top, layer upon layer.  She did an amazing version of one of her tracks (I have no idea what it's called) using only these techniques, including sampling hand claps and other noises to build this great song, looping the different samples live with amazing expertise and dexterity.  And on top of all that she's an ace Mbira player!  So once all that was done, we hung around for a while, chatted with various people before heading back to a friends house where M and I were staying until we had to leave at the horrible time of 7am this morning so drive back down to Dorset to pick the girls up.

We then spent the afternoon at my mum's, painting and playing board games, and eating a lovely roast dinner.

Ooo and I should also mention the great article written in a local magazine about Pixelh8.

Hidden Fortress at Norwich UEA

So...very short notice...but the lovely Imogen Heap has approached Hidden Fortress to play tonight at Norwich UEA.  All very exciting. 

Gameboy pokery

If anyone out there is interested in Gameboys, or has children interested in Gameboys and Gameboy music, electronics and computer programming then they might be interested to read this article, about M's latest project.

Bit of Advertising If you're in the Glasgow area....

Another Mad Weekend

I'm going to be accused of this being a non-HE blog soon! But this past weekend has been music filled with no children. So thats what I'll blog about.

Thursday we got in the car and drove down to Wimborne to drop the girls off. Had a couple of hours to kill at Avon Country Park, bought a new card game there Animal Match, but found out )the hard way) it was way too windy to play it outside, so sat in the car playing it for a while. Did some climbing and stuff (well, they did while I sat and drank coffee) then dropped them off with K. I drove back to Ipswich and went over to Ms where he had a few houseguests.

A couple of weeks ago we went up to Buxton for a gig, and this wednesday they all came down here to return the favour. They had done a gig in Bury (At The Grapes) Wednesday night, and appeared on ICRFM Thursday night.

Friday during the day we drove to Felixtowe had a wander around the arcades, got very wet as it was raining a fair amount and ate terrible chips.





Then we were supposed to have a party Friday night, but since so many people texted to say they couldn't come, and at least one guest was ill so we went to town instead. Although once we got to town M then felt ill also, so M and I went home early. Which worked out for the best, as two party goers arrived, two people I hadn't met before, and turned out to be really lovely. We sat up talking and drinking and chatting until the small hours, which always suits me far more than a party does anyway. Then the others returned rather drunk having sampled the delights of Harry Palmers (a terrible indy night) and eventually we all went to bed.

Saturday we got up had breakfast in town




and M was playing at the Respect Festival at the local college. Now you have to give them top marks for effort, and wanting to create an event highlighting the great community groups and support and equal opportunities and all that in Ipswich. But it is so badly advertised, that you get there, and there are lots of stalls, but not many people. They were running rather late with the music, so M didn't start his 30mins set until about 2pm and we had to be back at ICRFM at 3pm. But it was worth it to see the bemused looks on peoples faces as we shouted and heckled and cheered him from the back of the pretty empty room, and he put out lots of chiptune music. He followed a blues band, and was followed by a dub DJ, so lots of variety there. That done, we then had to walk fast through town to ICR where they appeared on Susanne's show. Then back home via the joke shop, where they all purchased various animal masks, I haven't had quite so much fun walking through town in a long time, harrassing young girls, and older ones, and generally causing a (loveable) nussicence - "What, you've never seen a rabbit before?"



A bit of chill out time, before getting down to The Drum and Monkey for that nights gig - VENT, which bearing in mind was the first time we've put on an electronic night there (and we had a bunch of mad nutters from t'north) went really well. I danced like a lunatic. Must remember I am no longer 17. Today my back and neck are aching a lot. Was great fun though.

There was loads of other stuff that happened. Just can't remember it all now. Had a fantastic time though.

Hidden Fortress New Release

So not strictly about home-ed, or any of my usual blog topics he he.

Hidden Fortress
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Select, Remix Volume 1 (September 18, 2006)





http://www.archive.org/details/upupdowndownleftrightleftrightbaslectremix


The new release from the prolific Hidden Fortress is the first volume of remixes of chiptune artists (It's titled derived from an infamous cheat-code). A brief run down of what chiptune is may well help here! Chiptune is music written in sound formats where all the sounds are synthesized in realtime by a computer as opposed to using sample based synthesis. During the mid 1980's to early 1990s sound chips were the only widely available means for creating computer based music. Because early computer sound chips had only simple tone generators and noise generators, the complexity of the sounds available were fairly limited, giving the music a distinct sound.

But to scoot back to using soundchips to make music for a purpose (rather than just for the pleasure of the music) you have to step back to the 70s and the rise of video-games. As arcade machines were developed so was the means of producing a digitally created sound, where a specific computer chip would change electrical impulses from computer code into analog soundwaves on the fly for output on a speaker, creating either music or sound effects to enhance the game. The music then would usually be monophonic loops used mostly at the start of a new game (think of the beginning of pacman) or between game stages. Including music in a game meant it would need to have code written by a computer programmer, who would often not have any musical experience. This was then developed through the 80s, and the newer chips allowed for more channels at once, whereas the original chips could only produce 2 channels (ie. two sounds at the same time) arcade chips could generate 8 or more channels, vastly improving the depth and flexibility of music creation. By the mid 80s home consoles, like the NES, could produce 6 channels. By this time technology was able to sample sounds to use, but the file size of these sounds was far more than the computer generated sound, so even then when used, it was often very small looped samples.

Anyway, to get back to the music, by the end of the 80s game music was being developed by musicians rather than computer programmers, (Some of the chips used were sound chips like the analog-digital hybrid Atari POKEY on the Atari 400/800, the MOS Technology SID on the Commodore 64, the Yamaha YM2149 on the Atari ST, AY-3-8910 or 8912 on Amstrad_CPC, MSX and ZX Spectrum, the Yamaha YM3812 on IBM PC compatibles, and the Ricoh 2A03 on the Nintendo Entertainment System or Famicom) and so the quality of the music, and the popularity rose.

Now chiptune music is written simply for the artistic value of the sounds created, rather than only having those sounds as a limitation of the technology. Generally chip tunes consist of basic waveforms, and basic percussion often generated from white noise going through an ADST envelope controlled synthesizer.

Historically chiptune could refer to any style of music. Modern computers can play a variety of chiptune formats through the use of emulators, although not always 100% accurately. This means that there is new chiptune music being written, and also some artists are revisiting and reworking classic video-game tracks.

Phew, got there in the end. Onto the album.

Hidden Fortress’ aim was to collect together a bunch of chiptune artists and work their own brand of magic on them.

Taken from their download page:

“…Our main aim was to bring the wonderful and varied sounds of chiptune to our friends and to further connect the world of chip tune artists with each other…..”

Which they seem to have done pretty well. I'm not that familiar with the artists they have remixed, and I haven't heard the originals of the tracks to really know where they've come from, but overall the album provides a cohesive journey through a wide variety of tracks, leaving you with that kind of uplifted feeling, that seems to fit very nicely with the autumn season we are moving into. I was sat in my car, the early autumn sun bright into my windows when track 6, FOR N TO EQUAL 80 (a remix of GOTO80’s Stag 3) came on and seemed to provide the perfect soundtrack for the journey. Upbeat, with a catchy bass riff to get stuck in your head, it seems to summerise the feel of the whole album, with just that hint of darkness Hidden Fortress seem to exploit so well. Followed by Hexidecimalover (remix of Schotastic's The Binary Walls Between Us) another feel good, happy dance tune. Other tracks to note are the opening track I Need A Quater (remix of Kidd Video's 25 Cents), a great pop song you'll find yourself singing along to. Along with the more pop like sounds, there are more classically video-gaming sounding tracks (such as Baby Buggy remix of Pixelh8's Baby Carrier and Blitx Pixel remix of MSX Crew's Pixel Addict), and some chilled out reflections notably Immobilizer (remix of 8 Bit betty's And I know That You're Happy) leaving you pondering just what volume 2 will bring!

I think this album should appeal to chiptune, electronica and dare I say pop lovers alike.

Hidden Fortress can be seen at various gigs around the south over the next few months, including The Drum & Monkey in Ipswich on the 23rd September 2006.

References:
www.wikipedia.com
www.myspace.com/hiddenfortressmusic
http://www.archive.org/details/upupdowndownleftrightleftrightbaslectremix

Nintendocore

A couple of people now have asked me what nintendocore is.  So taken from wikipedia:

"Nintendocore is a genre of music inspired by the music or soundtracks which accompany 8-bit video games most notably those on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It is characterized by the intensity of metalcore music joined with keyboard parts that sound just like old 8-bit video game music but occasionally is simply remixed techno variations of old NES video game themes. The term was jokingly coined by Nathan Winneke, lead singer of HORSE the Band."

Now you know!